Don Eddy
American, born 1944Altarboy Day Dreamer II, 1987
Not on view
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions56 × 40 in. (142.2 × 101.6 cm)
Framed: 56 7/8 × 40 7/8 in. (144.5 × 103.8 cm)
Museum purchase in memory of Mary Mallery Davis, 1989.70
In 1968, New York art dealer Louis Meisel coined the term Photorealist to refer to artists who used a camera in the making of their paintings. Many artists associated with the movement were also interested in removing all evidence of the artist's hand, an aim they often accomplished by use of an airbrush, which made the individual brushstroke indiscernible. Don Eddy is considered one of the primary artists in the movement. As with many of the artists identified with Photorealism in its beginning stages, such as Chuck Close, Malcolm Morley, and Audrey Flack, to name a few--Eddy has pushed beyond an early, surface-oriented style, one that was primarily about technical virtuosity and the beauty of reflections, to making paintings that are equally concerned with subject matter.
In Altarboy Day Dreamer II, the backdrop is specific and brought in closer, and similar objects--toys, candy, fruit, and postcards--float against a Renaissance painting depicting Mary surrounded and supported by putti (baby angels). In both works, one is bombarded with a collision of deep space and the flatness of the floating objects. It is as if Eddy has concocted an invisible screen on one side of which is the historical work (a trip back in time) and on the other is the contemporary work (the present). Many critics have seen Altarboy Day Dreamer II as a rendition of the daydreams of an altarboy as he sits in church. Certainly, the painting equally investigates both literal space and the space of the mind.
